Archive for the ‘Humor’ Category

Ever tried to please the GNU/Linux community? Has it ever worked? If your really lucky it has and you haven’t received any hate mail or been banned from any sites. If your not so lucky and you make mistakes you might be on the other side of the fence but does that mean your down and out?

I’ve experienced this other side of the fence first hand and yet seen projects succeed despite what the media says or the GNU/Linux community. Why is this? It’s because the GNU/Linux community is divided among itself and can’t focus on what really needs to be done or who or what the real threat is.

Just for the fun of it why don’t I make a quick list of sites I can’t post on or have been banned from:

Lxer.com (not banned they just won’t let me post)

Wikipedia.com Banned

PCLinuxOS.com Banned

distrowatch.com (not banned they just won’t let me post)

linuxtracker.com (not banned any more and can post)

ect. the list goes on.

I’ve had anti-Christian activists groups rise up against me and the Jehova’s Witness made up of PCLinuxOS moderators. They were the hardest to shake off my tail and my hat goes off to them for the 2007 Internet Troll awards.

But you see I was young in the GNU/Linux community and didn’t know these bullies existed or how to behave. It was a completely new world for me to contribute by making something. I never knew there were any dangers in it. I figure if I would have kept up the defense long enough they probably would have sent someone to kill me. I’ve had a lot of people warn me about that too.

So what did I do that was so wrong? Well I’m going to spell it out to you. First I installed illegal codecs into my distro and released it without understanding what illegal codecs were, 2nd I made people jealous by making their software better and improving upon it and I even gave them credit, 3rd after they all started complaining to me and getting angry I reacted by trying to fix my mistakes and then asked them what to do and they banned me from PCLinuxOS.com and linuxtracker.com.

At this point I had to make a decision to stop or keep trying to make something I thought was wonderful for my Windows users to switch to. During this time I made my first real mistake and started speaking out against the bullies that harassed me. This never works. The only thing that works is to quietly try to do the best that you can and know that others will eventually realize that you really have something assuming that you do. I spoke to several people including Ken Starks, Richard Stallman, and others. They encouraged me and gave me good advice.

After following the advice about 85% of the hate mail and comments stopped. Months later I was able to use linuxtracker.org again.

The first month I put out my distro over 40,000 people downloaded it. I got many positive remarks from CEOs and customers all over the world. They said it was the best distro they had ever seen for Windows users to switch to. I was not done. I still am not done.

The current result you see of Ultumix 0.1.7.7 containing the Mac4Lin interface and a Windows like interface is still not complete. I would say that 50% of the features that I want people to experience are in Ultumix 0.1.7.7 and that when I’m able to put money into the project I will hire programmers to help me to finish making my dreams into reality.

In one of Richard Stallman’s letters he says that it’s ok and he encourages you to sell free software. Of course now I know that my distro is not free-software according to Richard Stallman’s standards and that I’ll have to put out a free version as well. If it has the same name Richard Stallman says the FSF won’t support it.

I’ve had a lot of time to set back and reflect on what has happened and what will happen in the FSF and Open Source community. I have decided that there exists a problem that separates the two and that the Open Source community is devided among itself. That’s why I purpose a new idea to you. This idea is called the Freedom-Software Community. http://pediaopeness.wetpaint.com/page/Freedom-Software+Community+TM . The main statement is not finished yet and it’s a work in progress or beta but I have faith that together we can make it work.

Recently I’ve been talking with Richard Stallman for 2 – 3 weeks on the subject of running free-software. ( Richard Stallman is the president and founder of the FSF or Free Software Foundation. ) What I got out of reading Richard Stallman’s writings and e-mails was that free-software as in freedom is software that has it’s source code released to the public and the public is allowed to modify and redistribute that software as well. This does not necessarily mean free as in cost. This includes drivers and firmware as well.

If your running hardware that has non-free software / firmware in it you can’t use it because that’s against the FSF and if that hardware requires non-free drivers you can’t use it according to the FSF.

I did research to find hardware that supported a modern PCI Express video card with 3D that would work with the free drivers. I also looked for motherboards.

What I did find was obsolete and would require me to spend more money to aquire. At the time I was trying to start a business charging kids to play games on my computers. (playing just free-software games would have been ok).

So now we have rulled out free-software only GNU/Linux distributions and hardware out of the picture. What is the alternitive?

Open Source / FOSS is the alternative. Businesses and countless others such as Ubuntu have went to Open Source / FOSS which is the idea that non-free software and free-software can coexist. This sounds great doesn’t it? The problem is that these people get lazy and don’t try to make free-software and become independent of non-free software any more. Instead they get money from big companies like DELL, IBM, HP, ect. to put non-free drivers in their kernels so that the vendor’s hardware will be supported with Ubuntu’s kernel even though it has non-free software in it and it will work on almost any computer. Sounds great Right? But how does this help make us independent from Corporate America and all the non-free software? It doesnt.

The other problem is companies like NVIDIA are making it harder to use their proprietary drivers. ATI however has the respect of the FSF for now. NVIDIA drivers for newer cards and chipsets don’t seem to play friendly with GNU/Linux distributions unless you download Ubuntu’s latest kernel. Why? Why are all the rest of us left in the dark? Why must we become dependent on Ubuntu and Corporate America?

A perfect example of this is Ubuntu 8.04. It’s kernel is not even up to date enough to support the newest NVIDIA drivers that are out there and in some instances you can’t install it. I based the latest version of Ultumix TM off of Ubuntu. I updated the kernel and guess what it works! But why should you have to update the kernel every month. Any GNU/Linux hardcore hacker will tell you that’s a bad idea and will make your programs and system unstable.

The thing is whenever it’s possible to use free software to do your work you should but you should not be limited to just using free-software all together. Likewise the developers should work harder to create free-software, drivers, firmware, ect. We also need hardware made by companies that support the free-software idea that the drivers and frimware should be free-software.

The other major problem in FOSS is that the different distros and communities fight with each other to get to the top of distrowatch.com and say they are the best. I’ve heard officials from the Ubuntu community say to me that they believe that their distro is the best one out there and that users should only be presented with Ubuntu. Why I asked? Because of the confusion of choice they answered. Free-software is all about freedom of choice and not a one world takeover. Lets get back to the GPL guys. And worst of all the people who are really in charge of these projects have lost control. Their moderators go wild in the forums and make people angry and ban people for nothing.

So now that that’s all clearly spelled out to you take two tablets of Tylenol as we discuss the solution.

The Freedom-Software Community TM or FSC can and will solve all of these problems if Linux distributions join in. The FSC has not officially or publicly announced it’s presence before. That’s because they are still working on writing it’s philosophy for people to follow.

Here is the basic idea:

You are expected to use free software when:

1. There is hardware that is supported by free-software and the hardware is in no way more restricted than when it’s using non-free software.2. The abilities of the non-free software that are needed are not met by the free software.3. When the expenses of using free-software are affordable. Example of when this would not be the case: You want to run the hardware that supports free-software and has all the abilities of similar hardware that only supports non-free software but the hardware that supports the free-software is either obsolete or too expensive for the average consumer.

At any other time you are expected to try and use free-software and even if these conditions above don’t exist you are expected to try to support free-software in whatever way you can.

There are more aspects to the Freedom-Software Community that prevent fighting and arguing and promote unity and community. You will have to wait for the announcement in the news to hear that unless your an active member of the Ultumix TM Project.

I don’t know how to accept this award so I’ll start by thanking everyone involved. Gwernol was so kind. I could not have done this without him. He said that my username: “usacomputertec” that I’ve had since September 2005 according to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&type=newusers&user=Usacomputertec
the Wikipedia’s wrecords is in violation of the policy that says you can’t advertise using your user name. I pointed out that my user name was created before I changed my name of my business this year to USA Computer Tech but he didn’t care. I asked him if I had to change my skype name from usacomptuertec too so that I could post it as a place for support. He said he could let that one go.

They hate me, they really, really hate me.

He said If I changed my username I would be ok and he has been messaging me back and forth very quickly to resolve this issue but now it seems he has stopped for now. 🙁 So it does not look like Ultumix will be able to go on the Wikipedia.

“The article Ultumix has been speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This was done because the article seemed to be about a real person, organization (band, club, company, etc.), or web content, but it did not indicate how or why the subject is notable, that is, why an article about that subject should be included in Wikipedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, articles that do not indicate the notability of the subject may be deleted at any time. If you can indicate why the subject is really notable, you are free to re-create the article, making sure to cite any verifiable sources.

“You have been blocked indefinitely from editing in accordance with Wikipedia’s blocking policy for vandalism, use of Wikipedia for personal promotion and advertising. If you believe this block is unjustified you may contest this block by adding the text {{unblock|your reason here}} below.”

I guess I won’t be on the Wikipedia any time soon but if any of you Wikipedia users out there want to send my thanks to Gwernol just click on his name here and send him a message. Thanks Gwernol for the Nomination.

Ladies and Gentlemen I can finally say that my worst nightmare has become a reality. So what could be so bad? Well back when I was younger I thought of a computer virus that could literally destroy a computer. How? Well there is this little chip that controls all of the power settings and the boot sequence of your entire computer. Some call it the BIOS and some call it the CMOS but whatever you call it it’s the flash ROM thats in your computer. So I thought to myself what if someone made a virus that reprogrammed the BIOS / CMOS to tell the rest of the computer to put out maximum watts and volts that were possible and fry the machine? Then I was approached by a man that told me of such a virus that exists about 6 months ago. I didn’t think anything like this was out on the internet but I guess now I’m wrong.

I spoke to some computer techs in the Lewiston Clarkston area that work on Microsoft Windows Vista and XP computers. They told me that there are two viruses that do two different things and one of them makes your computer useless. Evidently one of these new viruses does reprogram your BIOS or CMOS but it does not fry your computer. All this virus does is make your computer into a door stop by telling the BIOS / CMOS to never let your computer start again. What’s even better is if you pull the Hard Drive out and run it in another computer the virus puts itself into that computer as well.

The second virus removes all administrative rights to your computer and gives them to some other guy somewhere else who now controls your computer. We don’t know what this guy uses your computer for but we can only assume it’s not good.

In case your wondering I have seen computers with these viruses for myself and they are real.

So why didn’t I know about these viruses? Well it’s pretty simple really. I don’t get Viruses on my computer and if one of my customers gets one they usually choose to switch to the GNU/Linux system and I just back up all their personal information, pictures, ect. and copy them over. This does put me at a bit of a disadvantage because I am out of touch with the frustration that most Windows users experience from Viruses, Intruders, Spyware, Trojans, and Adaware.

Ok PayPal has finally done it. One of their employees has gone insane and decided to post this:

PPman

“You people are ALL IDIOTS. You sign up and then you whine! I am so tired of dealing my my CR’s complaining about your stupid idiot calls and now I have to deal with the people calling telling us about this site.

We are on to you! This site is going down. You cannot fight PayPal. We own you and your money. If you people just followed our rules you would have your money today. Our user agreement is very fair and very easy to understand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I promise you this site will be down by Friday! You cannot get away with making these accusations and think nothing is going to happen to you. I am sick of you and your stupid website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can draw more attention and spread this to others by clicking here.

How do we know it was PayPal? Well we can’t be 100% sure but here is what we do know.

1. PayPal’s escalations specialists are in:

Attention PayPal
PO Box 45950
Omaha Nebraska 68145

2. This guy who posted this has an IP that was traced back to Oneal Nebraska. (he claims he is in WA state)

3. He has been sending all kinds of strange e-mails from the same IP to the owner of the site.

This gives us good reason to believe that this is just an escalations specialist or a manager of the escalations specialists in Nebraska. So why the strange threat? Can the really shut down Screw-PayPal.com ? No they can’t shut down Screw-PayPal.com but they can try to do something legal to them. However Screw-PayPal.com has not put out any slander against PayPal. Hmmm. One thing I can’t figure out is why this guy isn’t defending himself.

I can’t believe PayPal would do something so foolish but then again here is some other things they have done in the past.

Can PayPal afford to keep fighting this? I don’t think so. Not with all the new alternatives. My new employer is even going to start ibeforeebay.com, ibeforeebayandsometimesybay.com ibeforeebayexceptaftercbay.com and others. 🙂

Yesterday I discovered a whole new world of Trusted Computing in the XBOX 360 that I had never heard of on the Internet or anywhere before.

I was going in for a job interview at a computer repair / video game arcade / XBOX repair shop. The first thing that they asked me was if I knew much about XBOX 360s. I told them that the only thing I knew was how they worked. I had never taken one apart before and worked on it. I asked them what the problem was. They told me that the original CD/DVD drive had broken inside and they took it out and sent the XBOX 360 to Microsoft for repairs 3 times and each time they got it back they would stick an XBOX 360 game into the console and it said to please put it into an XBOX 360. So the XBOX was having an identity crisis of sorts or was it a trusted computing program in the game itself? They told me that they had been working on the problem for 3 weeks now trying to fix it themselves. So what was the problem?

Lets think back to the chain of trust that the XBOX uses (video here). First the secret BIOS checks the flash memory and passes trust to it and then it checks the hardware and software and passes trust to it and then it checks the game in the drive and passes root access to it. So where were we going wrong here? The XBOX 360 would play DVDs and CDs. So where were we breaking the chain of Trust? Well the secret Bios was passing control to the flash and to the HD software and playing DVDs and CDs. For some reason when we stuck in a Game and it tried to verify that it was an XBOX 360 it panicked. My conclusion was that every piece of hardware had a hardware ID of sorts and that the BIOS was to check all of them against each other to make sure that the system matched. The game however did not see that all of them matched up the way they were suppose to so It said it didn’t like us.

So I wanted to see the two XBOX 360 CD/DVD drives. Both had the same model number on them and both looked identical from the outside. But I was suspicious. Why was this drive twice as thick as a standard CD/DVD drive and enclosed in a strange metal cage? I looked at the model number more closely and found a strange unidentified number underneath that ended in 014 and the other new one was 009 if I remember which was which. So now we took the outer shells off and looked at the circuit boards. Both boards looked identical to most people but if you really looked the circuits had different shapes and different resisters in different places. Also the big chips that were in the same place had different numbers on them even though they were the same brand. It had a Panasonic controller chip. So I instructed the guy to exchange the boards (which had the same connectors) between the new and old drives. We put the new drive back in with the old board and the games played.

Before I knew that they had the old drive still I figured they would have to call Microsoft and explain the problem to them and hope that 1. they understood and 2. they agreed that it could be a possibility.

We are not done here. Then the guy asked me if we could add more RAM by putting ram chips on top of the old ones in there. I said that if it’s so picky about the hardware being just right then I would not try it because it probably would not work. Besides that it could hurt the Linux hacking ability by changing memory addresses.

Somewhere in a forum on the net a man claimed that his friend had a 100MB program that put files into Windows XP and turned it into the XBOX 360 game system without needing the secret BIOS or any of the hardware. That got us thinking. What if you could add these files into WINE and convert it into an XBOX 360? What would be the problem? I’ll tell you the problem. 1. The software probably can’t be modified due to the End User License Agreement, 2. The game might try to verify the XBOX 360, 3. WINE runs slow. However this might also give us the free Cedega we’ve been looking for like PlayOnLinux.

If anyone can use this information to do further XBOX 360 hacking please have at it.

I’m sure everyone who is reading this is quite curious by the title of this blog post. Don’t FOSS users already think for themselves? After all, they use operating systems that utilize some variation of the Linux kernel. Many utilize Firefox (or Iceweasel) and OpenOffice.org (or Abiword and Gnumeric). Many of those who utilize free and open source software read related news sites and blogs pertaining to events, news, opinions, and more. As of late, I have become slightly disappointed to say the least.

Half of the disappointment concerns a popular FOSS news site, and the other is an individual who believes that Microsoft bashing needs to come to a halt and that anyone who essentially disagrees will be seen as nothing more than a conspiracy theorist. So, who is up first?

A Portion of the LXer Readership

Yes, I am somewhat disappointed by some of the LXer readership, particularly after reading this forum post here. For starters, an assumption is made that Justin Breithaupt was angry with Newegg. That is not the case. He was simply asked to post any updates with interactions with the Newegg representative. Nothing more, nothing less. But this tidbit by remi troubled me…

We get that you’re upset, but please respect the LXer readers and calm down and try to make better distinctions between what is and is not news worthy. I’ve read the blog posts. I’ve read the comments here and there. There’s nothing news worthy about any of it. This belongs on a personal blog, not on the front page for all to see. Yeah, I’m sure you’ll rant on about free speech or something and that’s wonderful … that’s not what I’m saying. You can speak freely, but are you responsible enough to be given the power to speak at a pulpit that all the world hears *without* abusing that power by announcing your *personal* troubles to the world?

The problem is not so much the other comments, but the idea that somebody doesn’t like to see a company they like being criticized. Alright. I can understand that. It’s easy to jump in when a popular distribution such as Ubuntu gets criticized because it happens to be a favorite of the one defending it against the criticism, even if said criticism was constructive, but the idea of blaming the editors for not preventing other readers from thinking for themselves goes a bit far in my view. What happened to thinking and coming to one’s own conclusions?

Here’s an example. Quite a while ago, I went on a big rant concerning James Burgett when he was having issues with state environmental regulations. I let my emotions get the best of me. Was I censored by the editors? Oh no. I was torn to shreds by the readers. It caused me to change my position and rethink how I was going about with blog posting and writing a full-blown article. Now that’s the type of thinking I’m looking for, not, “This is bad, so we shouldn’t have to see it.” Well, don’t read it then. It’s not that hard. When reading FOSS-related sites/blogs, there is bound to be something that any reader is going to disagree with, and they said reader should simply get over it and move on (and of course voice their opinion, but expect a response countering what they are saying).

So here’s a few tips of my own, which are opinion based, so feel free to disagree:

While it is understandable that a blog author may make assumptions based on opinions of other experts and/or other individuals, don’t counter with an assumption of your own. This is the world wide web of course, and with such things, except with say, Skype and other programs, it is virtually impossible to interpret the true emotions of the person posting.

It’s perfectly alright to disagree with a blog post or a website article. A site and blog operate off of different principles (one being automated, and another not-so-automated). However, don’t assume that something isn’t newsworthy. As they say, one person’s junk is another’s treasure. In other words, think for yourself and allow others to do the same.

So in short, please don’t assume how a particular author of any article or blog post feels, and definitely allow others the opportunity to think for themselves. The fact that editors offer the opportunity to other readers to decide for themselves what is deemed worthy of discussion is an indication that they may believe that the readers are intelligent. Finally, don’t pretend to be speaking for an entire group. No individual ever does.

That was a bit of humor on my part, in which you stated that “Dont expect a sense of humor, either  thats usually lost with the self-reflection. If they call you a ‘Microsoft shill’ and you ask, ‘Where can I send an invoice?’ theyll assume youve just revealed your true allegiance, not that youre making a joke.” Yes, so called conspiracy theorists do have a sense of humor and more than likely will know a joke when they see one, especially since they are capable of making jokes themselves. Let us now examine a brief portion of his blog post concerning alleged conspiracy theorists:

However, you should also bear in mind that you cant win. Try to refute a conspiracy theorist, and you simply prove to them that youre the enemy. In the end, the best thing you can do for yourself  to say nothing of free software  is to stop responding to the conspiracy theorist as soon as you realize the type of person youre dealing with. The time you spend dealing with a conspiracy theorist will be put to much better use writing code, persuading a friend to try free software or dealing with the real threats to the community instead of the imaginary ones.

First of all, it is not about winning. It never is. it is about learning from a different point of view. If one can not read and understand a different point of view despite disagreement, then they have intellectual limitations. Such a thing is true no matter what subject is discussed, whether it be software itself or religion. Let us examine another tidbit from Byfield’s blog.

disregard for the rules of evidence: The wise pundit looks for evidence that would hold up in a court of law  that is, establish a point beyond a reasonable doubt. By contrast, conspiracy theorists have no such restraint. For instance, if a company has hired a former Microsoft executive, that is proof that the company is controlled by Microsoft. Never mind that Microsoft is so large that any North American company has a good chance of hiring a former Microsoft executive  the one tenuous connection is enough to establish proof for a conspiracy theorist. Key phrase: Can it be coincidence that . . . ? (Sometimes, yes)

Of course when a group of concerned individuals begin voicing their views on Novell and Microsoft, can one blame them, especially after the other things that the Redmond Giant has pulled in the past? I think “The Beez” had it right on this one. He said that, “If you do not win a discussion you may be defeated but that doesn’t mean you have to be a loser.” Right on.

Returning to Byfield’s blog, I noticed a comment from Patrick, a reader of the blog. He said, “Well, put your cards on the table. Where is the proof of your contentions. Who is showing the signs you are talking about? A few urls please.” It’s fair enough to ask for evidence as one reader of this blog has asked Justin to do in a prior post. What does Byefield give to Patrick? Here is his response to Patrick quoted below:

“I said at the start of the blog entry that I wasnt going to specify who I was talking about. I wont give them the attention, and I dont have the time or inclination to start what seems likely to be an endless discussion.

And if thats not good enough for you  well, you are reading a blog entry. Its an expression of opinion.

However, if anyone else wants to suggest a candidate for discussion, please go ahead. But Im not going to participate in the discussion much.”

So Bruce. Why broach the subject in the first place if you are not going to offer information to support your claim. I would certainly like to know who has been wild eyed lately, so that I can potentially learn from their mistakes. However, you have opted not to do so. You lit a fire and walked away. This is but a blog, but I myself tend to link to plenty of other resources that support what I am saying. Those resources also link to yet more resources that may have views that I do not agree with. That is fine with me.

Conclusion

The whole point of this blog post is to argue one thing: think for yourself. Even if it means you will read something you do not like.

To the readers of LXer, please keep thinking for yourselves. If you want to shred what I wrote to pieces, feel free to do so. In fact, I beg you to do so as I will learn from the end result of it.

Users of FOSS need to think for themselves, rather than be led by one person or another on the Internet. That especially includes myself, the author of this blog post. It is not about the freebie part of FOSS that is the most rewarding: it is the potential of raising the level of the mind.